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 Kyle Greathouse was a freshman the last time WCU went to Georgia, a game the Catamounts only trailed by four with 44 seconds left, thannks to 44 points by Kevin Martin. |
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Dec. 30, 2005
Cullowhee, N.C. - The Western Carolina men's basketball team will return to the hardwood on Saturday (Jan. 31) to face the Georgia Bulldogs. Tipoff at Georgia's Stegeman Coliseum is set for 4 pm. The contest will be televised on CSS and will be broadcast on the Catamounts Sports Network on WWCU 90.5 FM (Cullowhee) and WRGC 680 AM (Sylva). If you are not in those listening areas, the game can also be heard on the internet at www.wwcufm.com or www.wrgc.com.
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THE SERIES
This marks the fifth all-time meeting between Western Carolina and Georgia with the Bulldogs winning each of the previous four encounters and all coming in Athens. Western and Georgia started their series with three straight games from 1993-95. The Bulldogs cruised to a 100-64 victory in the first encounter, which came on Dec. 4, 1993. Just under one year later (on Nov. 26, 1994), Georgia and Western opened the season against each other and UGA won by nearly the same margin, handing the Catamounts a 94-67 setback. One year and three days later (Nov. 29, 1995), Georgia completed the sweep with a 91-71 victory.
The last time the two schools met, Western traveled to Athens to open the 2003-04 season with eventual NBA first-round pick Kevin Martin, who is in his second year with the Sacramento Kings. Western cut an 18-point halftime deficit to pur points on three occasions, the last being a 71-67 Georgia lead with 44 seconds left in the game, but the Bulldogs hit their free throws down the stretch to hold on for a 78-67 win.
Martin played a key role in WCU's second-half charge. Playing before Georgia great Dominique Wilkens, Martin scored 44 points, his second-best career effort, making seven 3-pointers (14 attempts), going 14-of-25 from the field overall and sinking 9-of-11 free throws. He only had nine points at the half, making just 2-of-9 shots from the field.
A spectacular alley-oop dunk from then sophomore Corey Muirhead tied the game at 16-16 with 10:43 left before the break. However, Georgia went on a 20-2 run and took a 36-18 lead into the locker room.
The Cats started the second half on a 7-0 run, but the Bulldogs were able to keep its distance until Martin's 3-pointer with 9:37 left made it an eight-point game. Western's first time to cut its deficit to four thanks to a 3-pointer by then freshman Kyle Greathouse and a fastbreak dunk by Muirhead. Georgia's Jonas Hayes, who started his career at Western Carolina along with his twin brother Jarvis, answered with two free throws, but then sophomore David Berghoefer converted a layup to make the score 57-53.
Georgia had a run of free throws and WCU was held scoreless, pushing the `Dogs' lead back to 12 with 1:49 left. However, Martin scored Western's next 13 points, making the score 71-67 with 44 seconds left. A Hayes layup and 3-of-4 free throws by Jay McAuley put the game out of reach for the Catamounts. In addition to Martin's 44, Berghoefer and Muirhead were next on the list as each scored seven points.
WCU VERSUS THE SEC
The Georgia game is the second of three Southeastern Conference opponents for the Catamounts this season. Western opened its 2005-06 home schedule with an 87-62 setback from the South Carolina Gamecocks. After its game with Georgia, the Cats will stay on the road to play at Ole Miss Jan. 3. Including an 0-4 mark versus Georgia, Western Carolina is 2-29 all-time versus current members of the SEC. Other than an 0-4 record versus Georgia, the Catamounts are 0-3 vs. Alabama, 1-1 vs. Arkansas, 0-4 vs. Auburn, 0-1 vs. Florida, 0-2 vs. Kentucky, 1-6 vs. Tennessee, 0-6 vs. South Carolina and 0-2 vs. Vanderbilt.
Western's wins over SEC teams came at Tennessee and Arkansas. On Dec. 17, 1993, at Thompson-Boling Arena, SoCon Player of the Year Frankie King led Western from a 10-point, second-half deficit to upset the Vols 78-71. King scored 35 points, while current WCU assistant coach Anquell McCollum added 16.
Nearly 10 years to the day later, Dec. 22, 2003, Kevin Martin scored 33 points and pulled down six rebounds to lead Western Carolina to a 62-58 overtime win over the Razorbacks. Corey Muirhead added six points and six rebounds in the win. Kyle Greathouse only had three points, but had a key steal to start overtime, was fouled and sank both free throws.
Western's win over Arkansas was the first by a SoCon team over the SEC since the 1996-97 season, a span of 73 games. It was also the only SoCon win versus and SEC team in 2003-04 (SoCon was 1-9),the SoCon was 2-11 versus the SEC in 2004-05 (Chattanooga beat Tennessee and Wofford beat Auburn) and is 0-7 this season.
DID YOU KNOW?
Georgia was one of 14 schools who were founding members of the Southern Conference, Western's current league, in 1921. The Bulldogs were joined by Alabama, Auburn, Clemson, Georgia Tech, Kentucky, Maryland, Mississippi State, North Carolina, North Carolina State, Tennessee, Virginia, Virginia Tech and Washington & Lee. Nine other schools joined the league over the next 10 years making the SoCon the first "super conference" in the nation until Georgia and several other schools left the SoCon to start the Southeastern Conference in 1932. The first time current SoCon members joined the league was in 1936 when The Citadel, Davidson and Furman became members. Western Carolina did not become a member of the SoCon until 1976, joining the league the same year as did Marshall and Chattanooga.
WHO LET THE DOGS OUT?
For the third consecutive game, and the fourth time in its last six, Western Carolina will face a team with the nickname Bulldogs. So far, Western is 2-1 versus the Bulldogs, defeating UNC Asheville on Dec. 3, defeating The Citadel on Dec. 18 and falling in overtime to Gardner-Webb on Dec. 22.
Western could have made it four in row as the Catamounts will be playing an SEC team in Mississippi on Jan. 3. However, Western will be facing the Ole Miss Rebels instead of the Mississippi State Bulldogs.
Other opponent oddities include Western playing three other Purple teams that share more similarities with WCU as well. On Nov. 20, Western played the Purple and Gold of Northern Iowa, who has a "cat" mascot as well, being The Panthers. Western also played another purple team with a cat mascot, facing the Purple and White High Point Panthers. Most recently, Western Carolina played at East Carolina, both of whom are Purple and Gold and, obviously, have Carolina in their name.
WCU HOPING TO FOLLOW GEORGIA'S LEAD
After handing Clemson its first loss of the season three days ago (Dec. 28), Georgia matched its win total of eight from last year, posting an 8-3 record to date. With Western's next win, the Catamounts will tie its win total of eight from last year, having a 7-7 scoresheet to date and going 8-22 last season.
BERGHOEFER NEEDS TWO FOR 1,000
Western Carolina senior David Berghoefer scored 28 points in the Catamounts' overtime loss to Gardner-Webb, his second-best effort of his career, to give him 998 points for his career. With his first field goal (or two free throws) versus Georgia, he will reach 1,000 career points and become the 34th Catamount to reach the plateau in a career. The 6-10 center has tallied 587 rebounds in his career, needing 112 more to enter the WCU all-time top 10 (699).
DAVID BECOMES GOLIATH
Even though Western dropped an overtime loss to Gardner-Webb in is last outing, David Berghoefer turned in a Goliath performance before fouling out with just over three minutes to go in regulation. The game started with GWU's Brian Bender making the first basket of the contest. Western immediately answered with a Berghoefer layup. He would score 12 of Western's first 19 points and the Cats raced out to a 15 point lead.
Berghoefer would score 28 points in the game, which was one point off his career-high of 29, making 10-of-14 shots from the field and 8-of-9 from the line. He was two rebounds shy of his first double-double of the season, getting two offensive boards and six on the defensive end.
What's more impressive is that Berghoefer was facing one of the top big men in the Big South in Simon Conn. Also, Berghoefer was just 1-of-3 from the field in his previous game (vs. The Citadel), averaging just 7.0 points and 3.3 rebounds in his previous three games (Maryland 7 pts and 2 rebs, East Carolina 9 and 4 and The Citadel 5 and 4).
RUSSELL & WCU IN NATIONAL RANKINGS FOR FREE THROWS
Sophomore Antonio Russell, who was 53-of-93 (.57 percent) from the free throw line last season, has already made 65 free throws in 14 games this season to rank ninth in the nation in the category (according the espn.com and Stats, Inc.). Even more impressive, he has only taken 73 for an .890 percentage to rank 42nd in the nation (for those who have made at least 15).
Thanks largely to Russell and the fact that the Catamounts have played an NCAA-best 14 games to date, Western Carolina ranks sixth in the nation in free throws made with 221 on the season. (However, there is a large number of teams to have played 11-to-13 games to date as well.)
Russell is fourth in the Southern Conference in free throw percentage, trailing sharp shooters Brenden Winters of Davidson (42-of-45, .933), Eric Webb of Furman (27-of-30, .900) and Kevin Oleksiak of UNC Greensboro (35-of-39, .897).
"TREY" BIEN
Western Carolina has become a very proficient 3-point shooting team. In fact, its 38.9 percentage from beyond the arc ranks second in the SoCon. A further look inside the numbers shows Western's 100 3-pointers made this season is tied for eighth in the nation, along with North Carolina State (where WCU head coach Larry Hunter was for the past four years as an assistant helping install the Princeton offense there).
One would not have thought of Western as a 3-point threat early in the season. Western only made 14 of its first 58 3-point shots over its first three games, good for just 24.1 percent. However, that percentage steadily climbed.
Over the last five games, Western has made 48 of its 105 treys, good for 45.7 percent. Also over that span, Western made a school-record 14 3's in a win over UNC Asheville, then nearly duplicated the feat by making 13 in a win over The Citadel.
Western has three players ranked among the SoCon top seven in 3-point field goal percentage. Eric Russell ranks fourth with a .441 3-point percentage. Antonio Russell ranks sixth (.423), followed immediately by Kyle Greathouse (.422).
WCU IN THE SoCon STATS
Western Carolina, who leads the SoCon by holding its opponent to just 31.3 rebounds per game, also ranks second in the league in scoring defense (63.9), third in overall field goal percentage (.464), second in 3-point percentage (.389) and second in 3-point percentage defense (.313).
